


On it Goes

by NalaNalani



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Copious Amounts of Sass, Developing Relationship, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, Kinda, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-29 19:11:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16270556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NalaNalani/pseuds/NalaNalani
Summary: Things have been going well for a while as far as trials go, and in this case, that's not such a good thing. The Entity just gets stronger and has a few more tricks up its sleeves. Tricks some of the survivors really don't know how to deal with.





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This is entirely based off of the Halloween event and the new lore that's popped up with it! I hope that I've done the characters justice!

Trials had been going quite well for quite some time now, and that was a welcome change for the survivors. Of course, none of them let their guard down in the slightest, but these trials meant that they could afford to be a little more at ease. The generators seemed to fix faster, the killers seemed slower, and overall, even the Entity seemed weaker.

They had just chalked it up good luck, though some were hopeful enough to speculate that it might mean that the Entity was losing its grip and control on everything in the nightmare of a realm. The more pessimistic and logical ones in the group pointed out the likeness of these traits to little events that had appeared in the past. All had been different, but there were two things that united them: that the Entity grew almost nonexistent before it, and when whatever event came to pass it grew in strength tenfold, and that applied to the killers too.

That truth was enough to uproot and incinerate any sapling of hope that had started to sprout in any of them. The confirmation only sunk deeper when after returning from one of the disturbingly easy trials when Claudette returned to the campfire with a mostly torn up and bloodied journal in hand. The Entity, cruel a beast as it was, did at least offer them warnings in riddles of what was to come. Whoever the clue was given to, it usually had something to do with their past or their skills. Claudette having it now made everyone at least a little curious.

Even with that threat looming over their heads, everyone was happy to have gotten off with minimal or even no injuries at all. At the top of that list was… well, it was probably Dwight or Kate to be honest, but in his mind, David was right at the top of that list. He was used to taking the hits meant not only for himself but for some of the others as well, so walking away unscathed was an incredibly pleasant change for the scrapper. Of course he did still occasionally miss that thrill that you couldn’t get from anything but a good fist fight, but considering how suicidal it was to try and get that here, he was quite content to distract himself in other ways.

One of those ways, and one that he had gotten pretty good about not getting caught in the middle of and was surprisingly tame for him, was people watching. More specifically- not that he would openly admit it though- Dwight was typically the subject of his interest. Whether the nervous man realized it or not, he was extremely expressive, regardless of whether he was speaking with another person or lost in his own thoughts, or even watching someone else himself. Maybe not as good a fistfight, but hey, a distraction was a distraction.

David had just enough time to watch the scrawny man’s gaze flick over to Claudette while she read, taking in how his eyes widened when the botanist started to go pale. After that, there was another body on the log next to him and an annoying little purr of a laugh almost directly in his ear. “Somethin’ catch your eye?” At least Ace, dirty cheating bastard that he was, had the decency to keep his voice down. David liked him. “Ain’t you ‘sposed to be busy swindlin’ some shit outta Feng right about now?” A somewhat louder laugh left Ace, but he wasn’t given the chance to properly respond before Claudette stood, moving more towards the center of the clearing.

“You guys are definitely gonna wanna hear this.” She started, effectively drawing the attention of everyone. “It’s that Baker guy we kept hearing about.” Did David give much of a shit about those journal entries they occasionally came across? Not particularly, but it seemed pretty this time so he was at least decent enough to keep his mouth shut and pay attention, even if he wasn’t listening the entire time. Sure it was probably important but he had other things on his mind too, not that he wanted them there at the moment. As Claudette begin talking, David caught his gaze back on Dwight who seemed to be hanging on every word that left the woman about what clues they had now. He felt a nudge to his ribs and honestly just about had to physically restrain himself from shoving Ace off of the log and more soft laughter came from him.

“So what, the guy’s dead then?” Nea piped up and Claudette shrugged. “I dunno.” She answered honestly, glancing back down at the last two pages and the unceremonious and erratic writing on them. “It… it almost sounds like he’s turning into one of the killers. Or already became one.” Nobody liked the sound of that in the slightest and a bit of murmuring started up between Feng and Meg and Jake. “Mostly what I gathered out of this is that everyone needs to be careful around the trees and those flowers. It said that he had to do something with the stuff from the flowers for it to do what it did, but I’d rather not find out what it can do without any tampering. There was a wave of murmured agreement to that at least.

A beat passed before Dwight straightened up where he sat somewhat, seeming thoroughly unnerved by the whole lot of information that had just been fed to them and spoke, albeit a bit shakily. “And what about the Vigo character?” Claudette shrugged again, not having a true answer for that either. “No idea. All it says is that Baker found some of Vigo’s writing and went looking for them. Kinda.” She explained and Dwight nodded still seeming unnerved -when didn’t he at this point?- but content with that much of the information.

David sighed and, somewhat unsettled as he was too at the thought of survivors being converted to killers, spoke his mind on it, and even tried to settle the mood. “This could be nothin’. Obviously we got something comin’ our way, but the whole serum shit or even everything about Baker and Vigo could be entirely fictitious. I mean, the Entity’s never really liked us, has it? Could just be tryin’ to rile us up.” The scrapper said, and what seemed to be mostly cautiously optimistic murmurs of agreement rose up to follow his words.

It gave them an excuse to cut out that particularly disconcerting chunk of information that they couldn’t technically prove to be true and everyone seemed to be completely fine with that.

“Fair enough.” Claudette agreed. “Still, everyone should keep an eye out an make sure that don’t get any of it on them or in their wounds.” Those were also words that everyone was ready to agree with without debate. It was best if they could forever continue to play off the idea of survivors like them being dragged off to the other side if the situation never even presented itself after all.

That seemed to end their little makeshift meeting and everyone was left to start discussing the new event headed their way or to continue what they had been doing earlier. Before David could return to his activities, Ace nudged him again. “Quit watching him like that.” He chided with no real bite to his bark. “He catches you, he’s gonna think you think he murdered your family or somethin’.” That was enough to get him to look back at Ace, about to ask him what exactly he meant, but Ace beat him to it. “You glare pretty bad when you’re people watching.” Well, that pretty much explained why Quentin had actually wandered over a bit timidly to ask if he had done something wrong when he had caught David watching him a while back.

“Gimme somethin’ to do that doesn’t involve gettin’ all my shit stolen in a card game and I will.” To that, Ace raised his hands in a half shrug, half defeated gesture, smirking slightly. “Guess I’ve got nothin’ for you then.” He chuckled and David did as well. It had been a while since he had genuinely laughed, but it felt good too.


	2. Blackjack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dwight has similar ways to pass the time and joins in on a card game.

Dwight himself hadn't had any real reason to laugh in a while, and obviously none of the other survivors had either, so when deep laughter rang out across the clearing, it drew a good bit of attention. He couldn't help himself from smiling at the source, watching David's shoulders shake as he nudged Ace again before seeming to concede to whatever the gambler had wanted. As much as he looked to be the typical rugged, stoic scrapper, Dwight had quickly learned that that was not the case.

By now he had practically memorized, not that he would ever tell David or even another living being, how he never really smiled but only smirked. It still held the same genuine warmth to it though. And when he was focusing on his thoughts, his eyes would turn down towards his hands and he'd pick at the scars littered across them. Even when he was angry, downright furious, there was something glorious to it. Of course, anyone would probably say that after watching a man like David take a chunk out of a tree with only his bare fists.

Honestly, that kind of power made Dwight think back to when David had first arrived and to what life was like before. Mostly when he had first gotten there though. Having helped him through the first trial, Dwight actually managed to start up a mostly normal conversation with him, and surprisingly, he didn’t seem to be that pissed about where he was. It was odd, but sort of in a good way. Most of the others that had come in had been downright terrified to the point of a panic attack, like Dwight himself, or had been ready to tear the world apart. Well, in the trial David had definitely been leaning towards the latter, but afterwards, energy spent and having successfully escaped, he was surprisingly calm. Maybe he was just hiding his thoughts, or maybe he just truly didn’t give a damn.

Wondering about that much at least gave Dwight something to do other than worry, and right about now after what Claudette had found, he really needed that sort of distraction. 

Now though, in addition to all the other little bits about David’s demeanor he had tucked away into the back of his mind that he had, he could add his laughter to it. Honestly, coming from David, he had expected it to be the deep rumbling sort, and it very much was, but it was also actually, legitimately jovial, and that much he hadn’t been expecting. At least it was a pleasant surprise. This realm wasn’t particularly wont to give those out very often after all.

Dwight blinked a couple times after that, realizing that he had been staring at David now and felt the beginnings of an embarrassed flush creeping up his neck, warming his ears, but it didn’t spread much further considering that David was completely oblivious to Dwight watching him. With a soft, somewhat relieved sigh, he sank into his spot slightly, sliding back a bit and nearly slipping off of the log, catching himself at the last second.

Real smooth. That suited him awfully well though, didn’t it? He had always been that lanky, kinda awkward kid who had been good at cross country and not much else. The kind that people only talked to because they had to or because they wanted something from him, or to turn him into a joke. After all, that was exactly how he had wound up here, wasn’t it? Because it was just so funny to his coworkers to get him dead drunk and leave him behind.

In a cruel, twisted sort of way, that was why he actually liked being here more than the real world. With the exception of the occasional jabs, and even those seemed to be good natured, he wasn’t viewed as the scrawny little thing at the bottom of the food chain. Nope. Here, in a couple ways, he was practically on par with everyone at least and was able to pick up new things pretty quickly. Most of the time anyways. There were somethings that he just absolutely could not grasp, but honestly? That was alright with him because it was the same for all of the others in one way or another too.

Putting it that way made it all sound less strange and pessimistic.

After getting lost in and then shaking himself out of his thoughts again, Dwight figured he’d actually bother to go and talk to the man rather than staring him down from across the clearing. It helped calm his nerves a bit that Ace was there too, laughing at David’s scowl as they played… whatever card game it was, he couldn’t tell from where he was seated. He really preferred talking to people one on one and avoiding groups, but just the two of them would be fine. Especially when Dwight just knew that if it was just him and David he’d say something stupid or something like that. Worst case scenario here, Ace tended to like to bail him out of awkward moments when he made them.

One of the things he wished he could do that just escaped him was ease tension in conversations like Ace could. It was just such an effortless sort of thing he did. Dwight realized he was staring again, still sitting in the exact damn spot. Cursing himself quietly, he finally stood and moved over to them.

Ace noticed him first, nodding in a silent greeting while David frowned at his cards. The gambler had dragged him into a risk-free game of blackjack, but he still felt that competitive edge to beat him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure if a five and an eight would. Ace had a ten down and just one other card in hand. David honestly couldn’t tell if it was good, or if he was just trying to pressure the scrapper into overdrawing, but the latter was working whether it was his intent or not. “Hit me.” David had to stop the smirk from tugging his lips upwards when he was dealt a nine. Fucking perfect. Ace stayed, so did David, and then they showed her hands. Ace had two tens and swore, tossing his cards back to the ground. “That’s five you’ve won now. Startin’ to think that you’re cheatin’ me.”

They both laughed slightly at that, and, no longer concentrating, David took notice of Dwight and offered him a nod as well. “Up for a few rounds?” His inquiry was met by Dwight shaking his head and pushing his glasses back up. “Nah, I’d probably just hold the game up or something.” David would have just let that be, but apparently Ace wasn’t going to let him get away so easily. He reached out to grab the sleeve of his shirt and tug him down and his sunk to the ground a bit awkwardly, crossing his legs under him when Ace let go.

“We both know you ain’t got anythin’ better to do. Besides, I know you know how to play and three people makes it more interestin’.” Dwight supposed that meant he was, in fact, playing now. At least he did actually know how to play, but he hadn’t exactly had the best luck with it. He never really knew what number was good enough to stop on.

Ace dealt to all the three of them, a nine showing for David, a seven for himself, and a two for Dwight. He tried to see how the others were reacting to the cards in their hands but he didn’t even know what to look for. He himself had a ten and figured that that was pretty good, but felt like twelve probably wouldn’t do much for him. David held his hand, Ace took a hit, and so did Dwight, and damn, he was pretty happy he had. Twelve might not be great, but twenty sure was. After that, they showed, both David and Ace having nineteens. “Hold up the game my ass.” David muttered, smirking slightly at Dwight.

Maybe he could get behind playing blackjack more often.

Quite a few more rounds went by before the air grew thick, fog very slowly starting to creep into the clearing. Time for another trial it seemed. The thick black fog curled around David and Dwight as well as Bill and Kate and it seemed like their team was set. It was just starting to properly engulf them at the end of their last round when Ace tossed down his cards to show a twenty. Dwight wished he could’ve permanently saved the look on his face when he and David both showed perfect twenty ones. “Well fuck you both then.” He rolled his eyes behind his glasses, but couldn’t help but grin. David laughed and got the chance to flip him off and call it payback before they were sucked into the trial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was just super excited to get this out which is why I'm posting it so soon after chapter one, but chapter three will be going up next week!


End file.
